Seeing that I never listen to the radio, but am a fan of many soul artists who are putting out albums these days, such as Bilal, Maxwell, Dwele, Jill Scott, Badu, etc., I'm noticing that perhaps a lot of these artists are delaying releases because perhaps they aren't selling well, or don't feature a lot of radio-friendly songs, etc. So maybe it's time to come up with a new category for these artists.

Album Oriented Soul.

AOS would define a sub-category of soul/R&B comprised of artists who build a following based on albums, not singles or remixes, much like rock artists of the 70's/80's.

Thoughts?

Am I late to this party?

namepeace said:

Seeing that I never listen to the radio, but am a fan of many soul artists who are putting out albums these days, such as Bilal, Maxwell, Dwele, Jill Scott, Badu, etc., I'm noticing that perhaps a lot of these artists are delaying releases because perhaps they aren't selling well, or don't feature a lot of radio-friendly songs, etc. So maybe it's time to come up with a new category for these artists.

Album Oriented Soul.

AOS would define a sub-category of soul/R&B comprised of artists who build a following based on albums, not singles or remixes, much like rock artists of the 70's/80's.

Thoughts?

Am I late to this party?

Isn't this kinda like what they call Urban Contemporary? Or maybe thats more single oriented.

Those artists would fall under the Urban AC radio format I think. Airplay on Urban AC stations are tabulated on Billboard's Hot Adult R&B Airplay chart.

You both make good points. My focus was on consumers, like me, who don't listen to the radio but regularly buy albums from soul artists.

namepeace said:

You both make good points. My focus was on consumers, like me, who don't listen to the radio but regularly buy albums from soul artists.

Okay. I think you gave the wrong impression using AOR in the thread title. Only radio people use that term, no?

sextonseven said:

namepeace said:

You both make good points. My focus was on consumers, like me, who don't listen to the radio but regularly buy albums from soul artists.

Okay. I think you gave the wrong impression using AOR in the thread title. Only radio people use that term, no?

Sound reasoning.

sextonseven said:

Those artists would fall under the Urban AC radio format I think. Airplay on Urban AC stations are tabulated on Billboard's Hot Adult R&B Airplay chart.

Yes, that would be correct. And for those older listeners who like John Mayer but don't want to be accused of liking lite FM music (a.k.a., adult contemporary), they have come up with the category of adult alternative radio. Basically they're too soft for modern rock but a bit too edgy to be lumped in with Celine Dion and Lionel Richie. This basically applies to most rock artists played on VH1.